Movies lie!!
More specifically, they
lie regarding birds. For instance,
I was taught at a young age that Great Horned Owls are evil by the wonderful
animated film Rock-a-Doodle. This is of course untrue.
Only Tawny Owls, such as the very wet Peabody above, are evil…small,
but evil (kidding).
Movies and television use
birds and bird calls to help instantly set the stage or mood for a scene. Need to establish that the protagonist
is stranded in the jungle? Use the
call of the Laughing
Kookaburra, even if the movie is set in Africa or Asia, rather than Australia.
Chadder, a Laughing Kookaburra who resides at the World Bird Sanctuary. You may be lucky enough to hear him call when you stroll down the path at WBS
A sense of foreboding is
instantly created with the haunting call of a crow
or the melodious hoot of
an owl.
Perhaps the most famous
bird call is that of the Red-tailed Hawk.
Wait, you might be thinking, surely that mighty keee-yah screech of the Bald Eagle is more
recognizable? Well, yes that keee-yah is world famous, and a great way to establish a
sense of wilderness, might, or ferocity in a scene. That call however is not the cry of our national symbol, but
the call of the often-overlooked Red-tailed
Hawk.
Sequoia, a Red-tailed Hawk who can be viewed in the weathering area just beyond WBS 's Wildlife Hospital
The call of the Bald Eagle is more of a high
pitched cackling keh-keh-keh,
which may be terrifying when you are holding the bird for a program, but just
doesn’t have the same mystique as the Red-tail’s call.
Lewis the Bald Eagle, a member of our free flying eagles team
So long ago in Hollywood,
the Red-tail call was used and over time it has been adapted and substituted
for any number of birds including other species of hawks, crows, ravens,
falcons and even vampires in the British television series Being Human (of course vampires are not birds, but it is one of
my favorite effects in the show).
Bird voices not only show
up in the wrong locations, but bird species as well. Remember that scene in The Proposal where the eagle swoops down and grabs the dog? You might have thought that that
particular eagle looked a little strange and you would be correct. North America is home to two species of
eagle, the Bald Eagle and the Golden Eagle.
Duncan, a Wedge-tailed Eagle
That particular bird in
the movie is neither. It is in fact a Wedge-tailed Eagle, a
native of Australia. If you have
visited the World Bird Sanctuary you may have seen Duncan our resident
Wedge-tail (and the first Wedge-tailed Eagle hatched in captivity in the Western
Hemisphere), who just so happens to be the sibling of the two Wedge-tailed
Eagles in the film, Sydney and Darwin.
The film uses Wedge-tailed Eagles not because of a subplot about
vacationing eagles, but because it is illegal in the United States to use a
native bird species for profit purposes.
Othello, an African Pied Crow and an audience member demonstrate how to recycle. Photo courtesy of BaronBoston Photo
This also explains why the
Windex crows look nothing like the crows you might see in your backyard. They
are African Pied Crows and if you have been to one of WBS’s bird shows at zoos, you may recognize them as our feathered
recycling friends.
Lenore, a White-necked Raven
Sometimes an effort is
made to disguise the non-natives.
White-necked ravens are used to fill in for the native Common raven, but
their necks are either powdered black or computer graphics are used. The dead giveaway is the beak. White-necked ravens have a larger,
rounder beak that ends in a small white tip. Common Ravens have a beak that is narrower and completely
black, more similar to that of a crow.
Poe, a Common Raven, can be seen in his enclosure on the path just beyond the wildlife hospital
There are of course
countless other examples, and it is not just birds that are misrepresented in
Hollywood. Come visit World Bird
Sanctuary and you’ll be surprised how many of our residents look familiar, and
how many don’t look or sound the way you always thought they would. Most importantly you will realize that
no matter what The Rescuers: Down Under leads you to believe, you cannot ride on the back of a Golden
Eagle…and not just because it would be illegal.
No comments:
Post a Comment